People who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis are familiar with constant pain, fatigue, and discomfort. While there are medications that can help ease the pain and discomfort of RA, sometimes it simply is not enough, and the person will have to think about surgery. If someone who suffers from RA experiences constant pain or an extreme decline in the functionality of their joints, it may be time for surgery.

Because RA is caused by inflammation in the joints, someone who suffers from the disease will experience pain, swelling, and redness in their joints – most often the knees, hands, and wrists. The swelling and inflammation in the joint can produce too much fluid in the joint and wear down the cartilage. Once the cartilage wears down, the bones in the joints rub together, causing not only excruciating pain but also bone loss and damage.

If, in fact, there is structural damage to the joint, a physician may recommend surgery for rheumatoid arthritis. A rheumatologist and an orthopedic surgeon would need to come to this conclusion together, and it would have to be the right time for the patient. If the joint or the tissue around the joint is damaged to a point, surgery can be helpful, but after a certain point surgery would be less successful. That’s one reason why a person with RA should be diligent about visiting their rheumatologist regularly.

If it is decided that the patient should undergo surgery for their RA, the surgery chosen might be knee replacement or hip replacement. In knee replacement, the surgery is minimally invasive, requiring a small incision where the surgeon will work through the quadriceps muscles rather than cutting through the tendon. This leads to a quicker recovery time and less scar tissue.

Hip replacement can also be performed using a minimally invasive technique, where small incisions are made to remove the damaged hip joint and it is replaced with an artificial hip. The old way required a larger incision, longer recovery time, a lot of blood loss, and big scars. The new, minimally invasive way leaves little scarring and has a much quicker recovery period.

Other surgeries that can be performed on people with RA are joint fusion surgery, where the joint itself is eliminated by the surgeon fusing the two bones on each end of the joint together. This is also called arthrodesis, and it is usually ruled out in favor of one of the surgeries listed above.

Another surgery is called synovectomy, and it is where the surgeon removes the abnormal joint lining to keep it from wearing down the bone and cartilage in the joint. This is not often chosen by orthopedic surgeons, as the joint lining can grow back and the surgery can become necessary again.

Some RA sufferers undergo carpal tunnel release, where the hands are operated on to relieve the carpal compression in the hand. There are two different ways to release this pressure. One carpal tunnel surgery involves cutting the transverse carpal ligament. That recovery time, however, is long, and it leaves scars. The better option is endoscopic carpal tunnel surgery, which has a quicker recovery time.

People who undergo any of these procedures will likely need to build up their immune systems so that they can fight off any infection that might occur because of the surgery. Many people have to take blood thinners before the operation, and it is a good idea for someone to donate their own blood so the doctors have it on hand just in case.

RA surgery is nothing to be taken lightly, but can greatly improve the quality of life for someone who suffers daily with the disease.

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Category: Medicines and Remedies
Keywords: Health, Doctor, Specialist, Treatment